North Carolina Women Push Closer to Equality

North Carolina women remain vulnerable to challenges such as unemployment, persistent wage gap, poverty, high cost of child care, and disparities in social and economic opportunities. The Status of Women in North Carolina, a forthcoming research report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, provides data on areas of progress and need. A few of the study findings follow.

The status of women has improved but it is still not equal to men on many dimensions, despite the efforts of many nonprofits with missions to help women’s well-being.

The percent of women in the North Carolina workforce is 59 percent compared to 70 percent for men, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

In North Carolina, on average a woman will earn $7,000 less than a man.

This gap has narrowed from previous years. This gap is even larger when men and women at the same educational level are compared. For full-time year-round workers with a college degree or more, on average men earn at least $20,000 more than women.

A single mother earns only 29 percent of the income brought in by a married couple household. Child care in North Carolina, for an infant, is above $9,000 each year for full-time care.

The cost of child care and the salary gap are major factors in poverty rates for women. Seventeen percent of women in the Raleigh area are considered poor, but few of these women are currently receiving financial assistance from the state.

The study is funded by the North Carolina Council for Women, the Wells Fargo Foundation, Women for Women with the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, the Women to Women Fund at the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, the Women’s Giving Circle at the Community Foundation of Cumberland County, the Mountain Area Health and Education Center Department of OB-GYN, and the Women’s Fund at the North Carolina Community Foundation.

Fortunately, there are many nonprofit organizations in North Carolina that serve women and children. Some of these organizations help to provide child care for families in need, while others are geared towards women’s advocacy.

Beth Briggs, in her 2008 Philanthropy Journal article, created a comprehensive list of nonprofits serving women organized by county. Below is an updated but shorter list of these nonprofits to give a sense of the types of organizations whose core mission is to advance the well-being of women.